(Summary: Marinette was always there. If you were upset, she offered a shoulder to cry on. If you were afraid, she showed you that there was nothing to be afraid of. If you wanted to end it all… she was there, telling you how loved and appreciated you were. So, who's there for Marinette?

Okay, this gets dark really quick, but there's a happy ending, because considering everything that's going on in America at the moment, we all need a little dose of serotonin. We get that when Lila Rossi is taken down. In this story, we have an unreliable narrator, which you'll see in a second. I'm not aiming for salt, but it might seem so, based on Marinette's thought process.

Also, there is themes of suicide in this, so if you are on watch, or generally squeamish about these things, please don't read this.)

Marinette wondered how many people she'd affected in her life. Her, Marinette, not Ladybug. How many people would be affected if she wasn't there? Once, Marinette would've said her classmates, her friends, but now… whenever they looked at her, all they seemed to see was a bully who pushed Lila down a staircase. Even Alya frowned when she approached.

Her parents would probably mourn her loss for a while… maybe Jagged would be disappointed in losing one of his designers… Adrien wouldn't even think twice, if she was being honest. Sure, she obsessed over him, but to him, she was just a friend, if only out of a sense of duty, rather than genuinely liking her.

And Lila… she'd probably laugh… spin some story to make everything about her. "Marinette felt so guilty about bullying me that she couldn't live in a world where I was better than her!" That was probably exaggerated, but… yeah.

Tikki would get over it. She was five millenia old and must've lost hundreds of Ladybugs. Although, maybe she'd be annoyed by the lack of cookies.

If she were gone… somebody would be there to replace Ladybug. Sure, maybe Chat Noir wouldn't be happy, but he'd get over it, too. After all, they had to learn to adapt to situations because of akumas. He could adapt to a new Ladybug.

Marinette fingered her earrings. Did she give them up now? Or wait? Master Fu would realise something was up if she suddenly resigned, and then he'd lecture her about duty or something. But she couldn't do it with Tikki around. Last time, she'd started shouting so loudly that one of Marinette's classmates had entered the girl's bathroom and stopped her. She'd have to take off the earrings first.

Yeah, she should just do it now─

"Marinette! Time for school!" Oh. She'd have to wait then. Oh well. It was just one more day…

One more day.

Marinette didn't last a day. She'd just heard Lila lying and all of her friends fawning and she saw the dirty looks and she just couldn't breathe! Marinette quickly split from the group, which she wasn't even technically a part of, and ran to an empty classroom. She heard Tikki speaking but the voice she once considered to be melodic was now grating on her ears. Marinette ripped out the earrings, flinging them across the room. The kwami instantly disappeared.

Marinette reached into her bag, taking out a sharp pair of sewing scissors. Breathing in deeply, Marinette placed them on her wrist, slowly pressing in. As the blood oozed out, Marinette ignored the pain, focusing on the activity. It was simply a means to an end. It would all be over soon.

Of course, Marinette failed to notice the purple butterfly hovering above her. Now, Gabriel Agreste was many things. An emotionally unavailable dickhead was one of those things. But he did have enough sympathy to not want to let… this unfold before his eyes. Akumatizing the girl would do no good… He was fairly certain that this girl was a friend of Adrien's. She had won a competition of his, about a year ago. And despite the fact that Miss Rossi had informed him of her obsessive compulsions regarding his son, he wasn't about to witness her death. Besides, if he needed to rationalise his following actions, he'd claim she had too much potential to allow it to be thrown down the drain like this.

The akuma touched Marinette's scissors as she was pressing back into her skin. Gabriel had no idea how to go about this. He couldn't exactly call the Suicide Hotline for tips. Maybe he'd just… speak.

"Hello…" he started awkwardly. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, correct?"

She let out a dry, ironic chuckle, her grip tightening on the scissors. "Ah, so you've finally figured it out, ah?" Marinette asked. His brow furrowed. 'Figured it out?' Figured what out? "Don't worry, Hawkmoth, I'll be out of your hair soon… do you have any hair? I could never tell. Your transformation doesn't show it. I mean, Chat and I only wear a suit and a mask, but I have no words to describe your clothing choices. Oh, the earrings should be around here somewhere. I'm sure you'll find them eventually, but you'll have to pull some strings, I'm afraid. This'll be a crime scene, soon."

Gabriel was left blinking dumbly. This… child was Ladybug? She was barely older than his own son! He'd always rationalised his actions by saying the two were older than they appeared, but this… had he driven her to this?

Gabriel didn't hate Ladybug. Sure, she and her mangy cat were a pain in his ass, but all he wanted was his jewellery. Emilie would never forgive him if he allowed a girl to take her own life because of his crusade.

"You don't want to do this," he told her, looking through her eyes and seeing the blood coating her hands. He could see a clock in the corner of her vision. If he stalled long enough… "I understand that my akumas may have hurt you, but─"

Marinette laughed bitterly, a sound that grated on his ears. He'd never heard a child sound so broken. "This isn't about you, Hawkmoth. If anything, you gave me a reason to keep living. But I can't… I can't keep watching her lie and manipulate and hurt them! Even if they hate me, I just… can't watch it. Th-they hate me. They won't be sad." It sounded like she was trying to convince herself of this.

He had to stall… "Who's been lying and manipulating?"

"Well, might as well lay it all out for you, I guess…" There was a brief moment of silence as Marinette tried to press down with the scissors again, but he made her stop. "Fine then. There's a girl… Lila Rossi. She's been convincing everyone that I'm evil and lying about everything I've ever done. No matter how much I do now… I'm just a selfish liar who should just die."

Lila Rossi… well, it seemed that he needed to reevaluate his contract with her. "Have they ever said these things?"

"Well… no. But I can tell from the looks." Gabriel frowned. So this was all because of an inference on her part. "And Lila… she managed to convince everyone that I pushed her down a staircase with a few fake tears. And Adrien isn't going to say anything because I'm pretty sure he's slightly scared of her─"

"Adrien?!" he asked sharply. "What do you mean?"

Marinette either didn't care about why he was so concerned or she didn't notice. "He knows she's lying. And he said we should take the high road, but I think he's only like this because his dad doesn't care about what he wants and is insisting they work together. And I've also seen the scars on his arm. She made him bleed once." Gabriel's eyes were wide. That… bitch had hurt his son. Oh, he might've been mildly annoyed at her unjust treatment of Marinette, but this just pissed him off.

But while Gabriel was distracted by rage and disgust, he failed to notice Marinette lifting the scissors again, cutting herself deeper than before.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng!" he exclaimed in horror. Just as he was about to speak, the door to the classroom Marinette sat in was opened, to reveal his son and Adrien's friend, Nico or something. Marinette dropped the knife, slumping back, probably because of the blood loss. Gabriel frowned, releasing his akuma and willing it to return. Gabriel refused to acknowledge that he didn't order it to bring Ladybug's Miraculous to him.

Adrien and Nino had just gotten back from lunch at his parent's house when they entered the classroom and saw Marinette, soaked in blood, sitting by herself and purple scissors loosely held in her grasp. Neither noticed a butterfly leaving the scissors as she slumped back, unconscious.

Nino released a loud, shrill noise as Adrien rushed forwards. He was, by far, less squeamish. Adrien clamped his hands over Marinette's wrist, shouting for somebody from the steadily growing crowd to ring 1-1-2. He kept repeating assurances to her, which was useless since she was unconscious. Adrien refused to be separated from Marinette, even when two EMTs arrived on scene, forcing her onto a stretcher and bandaging her wrists. Adrien insisted on riding in the ambulance with them, his hands bloody and shaking. They finally agreed when Chloé stepped in, pulling a status card.

When the vehicle disappeared from sight, the students of Françoise Dupont were left in nothing but silence.

"Why would she…" Alya broke off, staring at the bloodstain in horror.

"This is… Marinette…" Nathaniel trembled violently, the only thing keeping him standing was Alix's vice-like grip on his bicep.

Kim was as white as a ghost as he looked at the others. "Did… did we do this?" Nobody acknowledged that statement, too afraid of the implications.

"Marinette was always so bright…" Mlle. Bustier frowned, tears in her eyes. "I can't believe she'd do something like this! It's horrendous."

Only one student, Lila Rossi, was not staring at the bloodstain in disgust, horror, fear or sadness. Nobody paid her expression any mind, taking the blank look for shock. This was familiar. She had done this to another girl, too. It was all too familiar… Lila knew exactly how to spin this. This time, she wasn't going to get blamed for somebody else's suicide. It's why she moved in the first place.

"This is all my fault!" Lila cried, crocodile tears leaking out of her eyes. "If I had just kept my mouth shut about the stairs and my grandmother's necklace then she never would've felt like she needed to do this!"

Immediately, Mylène and Sabrina moved to console her. Lila was disappointed by her classmates' lack of reaction, but she supposed they were still in shock. They'd be flocking to her soon enough.

"I can't believe Marinette would do that to herself!" Rose sobbed, tightly clutching onto Juleka's jacket.

"I can."

There was a pregnant pause as, slowly, everybody turned to face Chloé Bourgeois, who wasn't paying them any mind.

"Excuse me?!" Alya demanded angrily. "Did you just say─" Alya flinched. "How dare you! Marinette didn't show any signs─ I… I would've seen them!"

"Chloé! Marinette is stronger than you give her credit for! She'd never just─"

"Commit suicide?" Chloé looked up to meet her angry classmates' gazes. Chloé looked back at the pool of fresh blood. "This is all your fault."

Uproar was instantaneous.

"What─"

"Who do you think you are─"

"How fucking dare you─"

"You bitch─"

"You bullied her for years─"

Now, this last one got her attention. "And yet, she never tried to kill herself because of me. I mean, I thought after the first time she had gotten better, but, clearly, not."

Alya gritted her teeth. "First time?"

Chloé frowned, looking down at her shoes. "A few weeks ago… I found her in the bathroom. She tried it then, too. I managed to stop her, bandaged her arms. Did you know the Nurse is never at school from eleven to one? Well, she told me why she did it, too." Chloé looked at them in disappointment. She didn't consider herself to be a good person, but this was terrible, even for her. "You all drove her to this. I probably was part of the problem, but at least I tried with her. You? All of you dropped her the second someone newer and shinier came around. So don't spew bullshit and expect cookies coated with sugar. That was Marinette's job, wasn't it?"

Chloé turned, stalking from the classroom.

They were, once again, drowning in silence.

It was two weeks later when Marinette finally returned to school. In that time, Hawkmoth had been conspicuously absent and Marinette's parents blocked whatever messages her classmates had been sending. She'd told her parents it was because she was stressed and tired. They'd accepted that. Jagged and Adrien had both visited. Adrien told her his father had paid for the hospital bills. Adrien also handed her a pair of earrings, saying that Alya had found them and wanted her to have them back. Marinette put them in for the first time three days later. Tikki only had comfort to offer.

When she entered the gates, Marinette ignored the pitiful looks, walking with her head held high. Marinette looked at her classmates. She didn't want to be around them. Any of them. Marinette had ignored their attempts to speak to her, stalking to the back and sitting alone. When Adrien got in, he walked up to her, sitting in the seat next to her, without any words communicated between the two. Lila had frowned at this, standing and sending a shaky smile to Alya, before walking up to the two.

"Oh, Marinette!" She went to take the other girl's hand, but Adrien grabbed hers mid-air, sending Lila a warning look. She internally rolled her eyes. "I'm so sorry that you felt the need to do that! I mean, I know you were upset about Adrien and I, but attempting suicide for attention? That's not very nice! A friend of mine killed herself a few years ago and it hurts that you tried this over something so… so… juvenile!"

Marinette looked tiredly up at Lila. "Really?" she asked quietly. Marinette shook her head tiredly. "I couldn't even be bothered to fight with you right now, Lila. Just… go."

Lila didn't like that response. She knew that her classmates were watching and how bad she must've looked to them right now. Lila willed tears to fill her eyes as she looked back, stepping down and stopping two rows later. "I can't believe you, Marinette! You're still keeping up this ruse! You did all of that just to get Adrien's attention and when you realised it wasn't going to work in your first location, you go to a fucking classroom! And you still sent me that message, too…" Lila flinched back appropriately in time with her sentence.

"Message?" Alya asked, brows furrowed in confusion. "What message?"

"U-um I sh-shouldn't─"

"No, seriously. What message?"

"S-she sent me a text… telling me to kill myself." Shocked gasps echoed throughout the classroom. Lila smirked internally. And just five minutes ago, they were so intent on comforting Marinette. Oh, how gullible her classmates were.

"No!" Rose exclaimed.

"Marinette! How could you?!" Sabrina cried, face flushing red in anger. Marinette simply frowned down at them.

"And this is why I did… it," Marinette stated, voice waving as she spoke. "When she says jump… you ask how high." Marinette looked at her friends in disgust. "You… you don't even ask her for receipts! You never asked me why I tried to kill myself! You know why?! You want to fucking know why?! It's because of you! It's because of all of you!"

The students flinched back. Adrien carefully laid an arm on Marinette's shoulder. She slowly sat back. He frowned at them. "Alright, everyone, listen up. I'm just going to say this once. Lila is a fucking liar and a sociopath. If you don't believe me, look it up. Markov, maybe you want to fact check everything I'm about to say. Lila was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder after she bullied a girl enough to commit suicide. There are hundreds of articles on it, as she's a diplomat's daughter, and all. Jagged Stone has never owned a cat, the only stranger Prince Ali has ever invited into his castle is Rose, he also runs charities for children, not the environment and Ladybug and Lila aren't best friends. None of her disabilities match up with actual ones. She doesn't even know the proper term for arthritis in children! Fuck, she claimed to have her tinnitus cured, but not a week later, she had it in her left ear, then her right! And there was no way Marinette threw her down that staircase! She didn't even fucking fall! She just fell and all of you ignored any facts! Check the fucking securtiy cameras! Go on! Nobody ever fucking bothered!"

Lila went to defend herself, but Markov spoke up. "I have been fact checking Adrien's claims, as well as comparing his voice and facial expressions to my knowledge on the human psyche. Based on my calculations, there is a ninety four point seven percent chance that Lila has been lying about everything, and a hundred percent chance that Adrien is telling the truth."

Slowly, students turned to look at Lila. Angrily, Alya clenched her fists and shot up.

"...no." They turned to look at Marinette, who was glaring down at them. "No. Don't blame Lila for your ignorance. This is on you. You believed her over me! You insisted that I was a jealous, raging psychotic at Lila's behest! Yes, she's at fucking fault, but I'm more disappointed in all of you, than her!"

Marinette grabbed her bag, storming from the classroom. Adrien quickly followed her, leaving the class to wallow in self-pity and anger.

Soon, Alya was blankly staring out the window. "We really fucked up, didn't we?" Nobody answered.

Nobody needed to answer.

They knew the answer.

Marinette did end up forgiving them eventually. It took seven months for them to regain her trust, but they did manage, although Adrien made sure to threaten them each a couple times. Only Chloé remained unimpressed, snorting and saying, "oh Adrikins!" and wrapping her arms around his neck.

Articles were written about Lila, along the lines of 'Lila Rossi has done it again!' and so she was forced to move, again.

Gabriel had put two plus two together, realising that Adrien actually was Chat Noir. He had been forced to reevaluate everything, before finally approaching Ladybug and Chat Noir and explaining his plight. Marinette had mulled over this, before realising that Master Fu had mentioned a Miraculous curse! She had convinced him to let the Guardian look over his wife, and Emilie Agreste was soon home with her husband and son. Hawkmoth was no more.

And Marinette never tried to kill herself again. Adrien always watched her carefully when she was holding a pair of scissors, and Gabriel had ever so politely took her scissors from her hands and handed her training scissors, the type you allowed children to use. This mildly annoyed her, but she also knew he was doing this because he cared. The Ladybugs on it were not amusing, though.

All in all, Marinette was happy. Everything was as it should be. Peaceful.

She had heard that with death came peace. Marinette doubted that it was as blissful as this.